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Have you ever had an experience suggesting reincarnation
or any other psychic phenomena?
I don't think it means anything other than that I have an overactive
imagination, or that my brain is good at putting stuff together. (Grace #1752)
"There is no death of anything save in appearance. That which passes over
from essence to nature seems to be birth, and what passes over from nature
to essence seems to be death. Nothing really is originated, and nothing
ever perishes; but only now comes into sight and now vanishes. It appears
by reason of the density of matter, and disappears by reason of the tenuity
of essence. But it is always the same, differing only in motion and
condition."
If on the other hand you mean phenomena that can't be observed by another
human about knowledge of certain events in my life that were dreamed about
and then came to pass as in the dream, then it's been happening all my life.
I was mocked many times as a child for 'talking nonsense' particularly by my
religious teachers, as according to them the only knowledge of worth is that
which is taught by authority. Theirs. The answers to many puzzles come to me
in dreams, and even worked out the Rubik cube from any scrambled position in
four minutes at my best, from ideas that popped into my mind (memory) in a
meditative state, is one example. Expected phone calls is my most frequent
'experience' that cannot be explained in any other way than by the existence
of a faculty I possess, as well as in many others, that is usually knocked out
of most by the education system, particularly religious involvement as mine
was. To say that such phenomena is just imagination, overworked or otherwise,
is as crazy as denying the reality in all its forms of human love. Its something
most of us have experienced and the more fortunate exist in such a state most
of the time, but how can it ever be proven? Same with any 'life' experience.
(Kerry #1773)
Right after my grandma died, I saw her "ghost" many times. I always saw her
walking through the house late at night when I was waking. I may not have even
been waking. I was probably in some sort of dream state.
Things like that, which are freaky in the dark, are not so when you look at
them in the light.
I think everyone'e mind is more suggestive at some times than normal. You
could be in an altered state for any number of reasons and perceive things in
ways they are not.
(answer #2)
There is such thing as coincidence. In high school, I once dreamed that I was
watching a plane take off. It went straight up and blew up. I told some
friends about it. I was about to fly and was afraid. The next day the space
shuttle blew up and a few people looked at me like I was evil or insane.
It was just timing. (ClaySkye #4)
I did have a strange experience about 20 years ago when I awoke in the middle of
the night with the strong feeling that someone was standing next to my bed
looking down at me. I was home from college and thought that perhaps I'd cried
out in my sleep and my mom had gotten up to see if I was okay. However, I felt
absolutely terrified for some reason and was afraid to open up my eyes. I said
"Mom?", and whatever it was said, "I remember I'm........" and didn't say
anything further. I thought "What the hell is that?" and opened my eyes to see
a shadowy figure of a young woman standing next to my bed looking out my window.
As I continue to stare at her, she slowly walked through the wall and
disappeared. When she disappeared, I suddenly felt as if a weight had been
lifted from me and I felt very relieved that she was gone. This was probably
one of those "waking dream" things, but it was still pretty wild - even if it
was just my imagination. (Robyn #1557)
The business of various deities showing up in person for 1 on 1 chats
were fairly obvious hallucinations since there was never anything to
suggest afterwords that anyone or anything had been there.
The odd memories of past lives are also easily explainable with a little
psychology once you know the fact that nothing frightens me more than the
idea of my consciousness coming to an end. For a long time even as an
atheist I willfully fooled myself into believing in some sort of afterlife
*any* sort, just so I would not have to face that fear. Of course, even
as I fooled myself I did admit to others what I was doing.
So, yea, I've seen all sorts of this sort of stuff. No, I wouldn't
accept any of it as credible evidence if I were you. I sure don't. (Rian Jensen #317)
I'm told I sleepwalk a lot. Sometimes I vaguely remember doing it. In the
morning when I'm fully awake, the things I do invariably seem ridiculous,
but while I'm doing them (while mostly asleep) they always seem perfectly
sensible. Not a psychic phenomenon, just one that goes to show how easy it
is to lose the faculties of logic. The lucid thought we pride ourselves on
is like a layer of thin ice over a deep lake of murky uncharted waters. In
evolutionary terms it's a brand-new addition, and evidently we've got a long
way to go before we master it. (Adam Marczyk)
Growing up, we believed there to be a poltergeist in the house. I was
a troubled youth, and in retrospect I must admit that our family fit
the profile of poltergeist bait to a tee. Once even after adulthood
when I went home for a visit, I was walking out to the kitchen where
mom was cooking something. A whole plethora of things happened all at
once. The kitchen screen door suddenly slammed shut (no one could
recall having opened it), the oven door slammed shut (mom was baking &
had it open to tend to whatever she was cooking), some things fell out
of the cupboard and the freezer dumped its ice tray all at about the
same time. All mom could do is stand upright, look at me and say,
"You're weird..." A truer observation couldn't be made, but I digress...
My own "rational" speculation is that the kitchen screen door had
simply blown open when no one was paying attention, and the wobbly
spring just held it there for a tense moment (it was an actual spring,
stretched to its limit but held in place by the position of the door).
Perhaps the vibrations of me stepping through the old house gave the
tension just the right amount of energy, or perhaps the wind blew the
other way, but I can pretty easily believe that the door slamming shut
caused the other things. The oven door also had a spring hinge, and
mom simply may not have opened it the whole way, causing the whole
series of vibrations to make it snap shut in response.
Still, there are innumerable stories of "phantom knocking" and
doorknob jigglings and lights being on when left off or off when left
on, and light bulbs bursting all over the place for no apparent
reason, watches stopping, etc... etc... etc... That, and my best
friend's mother heard me in their house when I was nowhere around.
This was before I told her about what I believed to be astral
projection experiences. I don't know what to say. I know that the
human energy field is there, but it's mostly biochemical, very little
actual electricity escapes the body. I'd be amazed if it could ever
be strong enough to affect such changes. I also know that my best
friend's mother is a fundie-nut, and she already had suspicions that I
was into that evil, satanic "psychic" stuff and so the paranoia alone
could easily have permitted her to imagine it.
Hmmnn... Now that I think about it, my doorknob's begun to jiggle
again. I thought (hoped, rather) that it was the guy upstairs playing
games with me on his way by, but now I'm not so sure...
ANYwho... The reincarnation memories are a bit of something else.
All I can say is that I've got an incredibly imaginative mind, and
have had it since early childhood. The details I could come up with
for each lifetime were astounding, even though as you might guess,
none of it could easily be confirmed. Except this one, but then this
is probably explicable by the fact that I lived with my mom. I once
remembered being a little girl, and the neice of the woman I lived
next door to would visit her from time to time. I remembered playing
under my back porch with this girl once in awhile. When I was leafing
through my mother's yearbooks one time, I came across an "In Memoriam"
page and just about had an accident right then and there. It was the
girl I remembered being. When I pressed my mom about her, I found out
that she knew her. But I didn't want to press too hard. Then one
time, my mom took me on a visit to her cousin, a cousin who happened
to still live in the family home of her mother - or my mom's aunt. I
felt a bit strange there, like I should know this place. I found out
that my mom used to come here as a little girl and play with the
little girl next door - the girl I remembered being. And they would
play games under the back porch.
This, too, can be rationally explained. Quite simply, my mom may have
had her yearbooks out when I was a weeeeee little lass, and maybe
talking to someone about the girl (maybe to me, but probably to
someone else) and I overheard some of her stories while simultaneously
catching a glimpse of the girl in question.
As for simply "psychic" stuff, not too much, though some. Mostly when
I used to channel for the people who were trying to convince me that I
was a god, and I don't put too much stock in their professions that I
accurately read their minds or what have you. Simple group dynamics
make such manifestations far too easy when involved with such
eager-to-believe groups. I did get a few hits, such as accurately
stating the month my grandmother was going to die (not that
impressive, considering it was roughly 6 months prior to the event I
"predicted" it, and she had been ill for quite some time), but then if
I really examined it all, I'm sure I'd have more than enough misses.
Still, sometimes it seems like some of us have this kind of crud
happen to us way more often than others. It makes me wonder even to
this day, but I refuse to go off the deep end about it. I've come to
the conclusion that even if reincarnation *would* happen to be true,
there's a reason I'm here and now rather than there and then - I've
got a life to live in the present, there wouldn't be any sense
dwelling on the past either way. This same train of thought has been
very helpful to me in recovering from my (current) childhood traumas.
Likewise the psychic phenomenon. If it is real, it clearly can't be
worth the "investment" put into it for the results achieved, or we'd
have naturally evolved as a psychic species right from the get-go.
(Avender #88)
I try to explain it ... often no simple answer appears. If it is
possible to explain it in terms of known science, then I just assume
that the brain is able to process information and reach contusions
in a most amazing way - without me being aware of it till the
results appear. I have read much about various attempts to explain
psi scientifically; nothing has convinced me. The claim that it all
make believe is as dumb as the claim that everything is make
believe. Well, maybe I'll start another thread about it eventually.
I mean, it is a bit odd the so much of my experience does not appear
compatible with the view of the world that most scientists have -
and I have the greatest respect for science and the scientific
method. (THOR)
That's the only time that's ever happened, and I do dream a lot, but
it still weirded me out. (Alex #1951)
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